Comprehensive assessment tools are needed that reliably describe environmental impacts of different agricultural systems in order to develop sustainable high yielding agricultural production systems ...with minimal impacts on the environment. Today, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is increasingly used to assess and compare the environmental sustainability of agricultural products from conventional and organic agriculture. However, LCA studies comparing agricultural products from conventional and organic farming systems report a wide variation in the resource efficiency of products from these systems. The studies show that impacts per area farmed land are usually less in organic systems, but related to the quantity produced impacts are often higher. We reviewed 34 comparative LCA studies of organic and conventional agricultural products to analyze whether this result is solely due to the usually lower yields in organic systems or also due to inaccurate modeling within LCA. Comparative LCAs on agricultural products from organic and conventional farming systems often do not adequately differentiate the specific characteristics of the respective farming system in the goal and scope definition and in the inventory analysis. Further, often only a limited number of impact categories are assessed within the impact assessment not allowing for a comprehensive environmental assessment. The most critical points we identified relate to the nitrogen (N) fluxes influencing acidification, eutrophication, and global warming potential, and biodiversity. Usually, N-emissions in LCA inventories of agricultural products are based on model calculations. Modeled N-emissions often do not correspond with the actual amount of N left in the system that may result in potential emissions. Reasons for this may be that N-models are not well adapted to the mode of action of organic fertilizers and that N-emission models often are built on assumptions from conventional agriculture leading to even greater deviances for organic systems between the amount of N calculated by emission models and the actual amount of N available for emissions. Improvements are needed regarding a more precise differentiation between farming systems and regarding the development of N emission models that better represent actual N-fluxes within different systems. We recommend adjusting N- and C-emissions during farmyard manure management and farmyard manure fertilization in plant production to the feed ration provided in the animal production of the respective farming system leading to different N- and C-compositions within the excrement. In the future, more representative background data on organic farming systems (e.g. N content of farmyard manure) should be generated and compiled so as to be available for use within LCA inventories. Finally, we recommend conducting consequential LCA – if possible – when using LCA for policy-making or strategic environmental planning to account for different functions of the analyzed farming systems.
•We revealed considerable bias in comparative LCA studies on agricultural products.•We suggest how to improve sustainability assessment of agricultural products in LCA.•A more precise differentiation of farming systems is needed within LCA.•In inventories we found large deviations between modeled and actual N-fluxes.
Human herpesviruses (HHV) cause a variety of clinically relevant conditions upon primary infection of typically young and immunocompetent hosts. Both primary infection and reactivation after latency ...can lead to more severe disease, such as encephalitis, congenital defects and cancer. Infections with HHV are also associated with cardiovascular and neurodegenerative disease. However, most of the associations are based on retrospective case-control analyses and well-powered prospective cohort studies are needed for assessing temporality and causality. To enable comprehensive investigations of HHV-related disease etiology in large prospective population-based cohort studies, we developed HHV Multiplex Serology. This methodology represents a low-cost, high-throughput technology that allows simultaneous measurement of specific antibodies against five HHV species: Herpes simplex viruses 1 and 2, Varicella zoster virus, Epstein-Barr virus, and Cytomegalovirus. The newly developed HHV species-specific ('Monoplex') assays were validated against established gold-standard reference assays. The specificity and sensitivity of the HHV species-specific Monoplex Serology assays ranged from 92.3% to 100.0% (median 97.4%) and 91.8% to 98.7% (median 96.6%), respectively. Concordance with reference assays was very high with kappa values ranging from 0.86 to 0.96 (median kappa 0.93). Multiplexing the Monoplex Serology assays resulted in no loss of performance and allows simultaneous detection of antibodies against the 5 HHV species in a high-throughput manner.
With sustainability within food systems becoming an increasingly important issue, several approaches that claim to assess the sustainability of farms, farming systems, and supply chains have been ...developed. Looking more closely at these sustainability impact assessment approaches, we discerned considerable differences between them in terms of scope, the level of assessment, and the precision of indicators used for impact assessment. Our aim was to classify and analyze a range of available sustainability impact assessment approaches with respect to scope and precision. From a total of 35 sustainability assessment approaches, we selected 6 for a detailed comparison. From our analysis, we concluded that there are 3 different types of trade-offs in these approaches: between different kinds of scope, between different indicators for precision and trade-offs, and between the scope and precision. Thus, one-size-fits-all solutions, with respect to tool selection, are rarely feasible. Furthermore, as indicator selection determines the assessment results, different and inconsistent indicators can lead to contradictory assessment results that may not be comparable. To overcome these shortcomings, sustainability impact assessments should include a precise definition of the notion of “sustainability” along with a description of the methodological approach and the indicator sets and should aim for harmonization of indicators and assumptions. Global initiatives such as theSustainability Assessment in Food and Agriculture Systems (SAFA) Guidelinesare a helpful step toward shedding light on the differences of these approaches and making the assessment results more comparable.
At the renowned archaeological site of Mycenae, striking depictions of animals in ancient art and architecture, such as the 'Lion Gate', reflect the great power of elite residents in the Late Bronze ...Age. To better understand how social complexity relates to human-animal interactions at Mycenae, more research is needed on the animals who actually lived there. In a first for the archaeological site of Mycenae, we utilized a contextual taphonomic approach and statistical analysis to study a faunal assemblage, focusing on a massive deposit recovered from a well feature located in Room Π of Petsas House. Petsas House was an industrial-residential complex at Mycenae used at least in part by ceramic artisans at the time of its destruction in the Late Helladic IIIA2 period. Intra-contextual analysis of the animal remains detected sub-assemblages with variable histories of animal use and deposition. The results revealed multiple disposal events and possible dog interments. Most of the refuse in the well likely originated from rubbish piles in the surrounding rooms and periphery that were cleaned after a destructive earthquake. Together, the faunal evidence yielded a more nuanced, possibly seasonal picture of animal access than previously available at this important political center. The results provide new insights into the diverse and resilient resource provisioning strategies available to extra-palatial residents of Mycenae, especially those who participated in craft production and trade networks at the height of the palatial period.
We present femtosecond laser-induced electron emission from nanodiamond-coated tungsten tips. Based on the shortness of the femtosecond laser pulses, electrons can be photoexcited for wavelengths ...from the infrared (1932 nm) to the ultraviolet (235 nm) because multiphoton excitation becomes efficient over the entire spectral range. Depending on the laser wavelength, we find different dominant emission channels identified by the number of photons needed to emit electrons. Based on the band alignment between tungsten and nanodiamond, the relevant emission channels can be identified as specific transitions in diamond and its graphitic boundaries. It is the combination of the character of initial and final states (i.e., bulk or surface-near, direct or indirect excitation in the diamond band structure), the number of photons providing the excitation energy, and the peak intensity of the laser pulses that determines the dominant excitation channel for photoemission. A specific feature of the hydrogen-terminated nanodiamond coating is its negative electron affinity that significantly lowers the work function and enables efficient emission from the conduction band minimum into vacuum without an energy barrier. Emission is stable for bunch charges of up to 400 electrons per laser pulse. We infer a normalized emittance of <0.20 nm rad and a normalized peak brightness of >1.2×1012 A m−2 sr−1. The properties of these tips are encouraging for their use as laser-triggered electron sources in applications such as ultrafast electron microscopy as well as diffraction and novel photonics-based laser accelerators.
The seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted in 2015 and achieving them by 2030 is crucial for human development. However, progress on the goals currently remains short of the ...requirements. As the third and public sectors play a crucial role in achieving the goals, this study analyzes how the SDG-related third sector and public administration literature has evolved over the last thirty years. I use a state-of-the-art method to map articles to the SDGs. In contrast to previous studies that have found an increase in publications that directly mention the SDGs, I find a decline in the proportion of articles that relate to the SDGs without necessarily mentioning them directly. I also analyze how the SDG-relatedness of an article corresponds to its citation count. While I find mixed results across SDGs and data sources, the relationship between SDG-relatedness and citation count is significantly more positive for work published after the adoption of the SDGs. While the association between SDG-relatedness and citation count is now positive for the third sector literature published after 2015, it is still negative for the public administration literature.
While evidence that alcohol pricing policies reduce alcohol-related health harm is robust, and alcohol taxation increases are a WHO "best buy" intervention, there is a lack of research comparing the ...scale and distribution across society of health impacts arising from alternative tax and price policy options. The aim of this study is to test whether four common alcohol taxation and pricing strategies differ in their impact on health inequalities.
An econometric epidemiological model was built with England 2014/2015 as the setting. Four pricing strategies implemented on top of the current tax were equalised to give the same 4.3% population-wide reduction in total alcohol-related mortality: current tax increase, a 13.4% all-product duty increase under the current UK system; a value-based tax, a 4.0% ad valorem tax based on product price; a strength-based tax, a volumetric tax of £0.22 per UK alcohol unit (= 8 g of ethanol); and minimum unit pricing, a minimum price threshold of £0.50 per unit, below which alcohol cannot be sold. Model inputs were calculated by combining data from representative household surveys on alcohol purchasing and consumption, administrative and healthcare data on 43 alcohol-attributable diseases, and published price elasticities and relative risk functions. Outcomes were annual per capita consumption, consumer spending, and alcohol-related deaths. Uncertainty was assessed via partial probabilistic sensitivity analysis (PSA) and scenario analysis. The pricing strategies differ as to how effects are distributed across the population, and, from a public health perspective, heavy drinkers in routine/manual occupations are a key group as they are at greatest risk of health harm from their drinking. Strength-based taxation and minimum unit pricing would have greater effects on mortality among drinkers in routine/manual occupations (particularly for heavy drinkers, where the estimated policy effects on mortality rates are as follows: current tax increase, -3.2%; value-based tax, -2.9%; strength-based tax, -6.1%; minimum unit pricing, -7.8%) and lesser impacts among drinkers in professional/managerial occupations (for heavy drinkers: current tax increase, -1.3%; value-based tax, -1.4%; strength-based tax, +0.2%; minimum unit pricing, +0.8%). Results from the PSA give slightly greater mean effects for both the routine/manual (current tax increase, -3.6% 95% uncertainty interval (UI) -6.1%, -0.6%; value-based tax, -3.3% UI -5.1%, -1.7%; strength-based tax, -7.5% UI -13.7%, -3.9%; minimum unit pricing, -10.3% UI -10.3%, -7.0%) and professional/managerial occupation groups (current tax increase, -1.8% UI -4.7%, +1.6%; value-based tax, -1.9% UI -3.6%, +0.4%; strength-based tax, -0.8% UI -6.9%, +4.0%; minimum unit pricing, -0.7% UI -5.6%, +3.6%). Impacts of price changes on moderate drinkers were small regardless of income or socioeconomic group. Analysis of uncertainty shows that the relative effectiveness of the four policies is fairly stable, although uncertainty in the absolute scale of effects exists. Volumetric taxation and minimum unit pricing consistently outperform increasing the current tax or adding an ad valorem tax in terms of reducing mortality among the heaviest drinkers and reducing alcohol-related health inequalities (e.g., in the routine/manual occupation group, volumetric taxation reduces deaths more than increasing the current tax in 26 out of 30 probabilistic runs, minimum unit pricing reduces deaths more than volumetric tax in 21 out of 30 runs, and minimum unit pricing reduces deaths more than increasing the current tax in 30 out of 30 runs). Study limitations include reducing model complexity by not considering a largely ineffective ban on below-tax alcohol sales, special duty rates covering only small shares of the market, and the impact of tax fraud or retailer non-compliance with minimum unit prices.
Our model estimates that, compared to tax increases under the current system or introducing taxation based on product value, alcohol-content-based taxation or minimum unit pricing would lead to larger reductions in health inequalities across income groups. We also estimate that alcohol-content-based taxation and minimum unit pricing would have the largest impact on harmful drinking, with minimal effects on those drinking in moderation.
This article argues that domestic violence and child maltreatment (together termed “family violence”) need to be brought in from the margins of family law discourse to change the profession’s ...systemic denials of the risks many children face from an abusive parent. The argument is supported by new empirical evidence validating the critiques of the domestic violence field and emphasizing the cognitive dissonance between the field’s critiques of family courts and mainstream family law and scholarship. This article then turns to the question the data raise: Why are mothers’ claims of abuse so widely denied in court? In addition to recognized explanations such as courts’ emphasis on shared parenting, gender bias, and misconceptions about abuse, it suggests another less recognized contributor — unconscious psychological denial, also referred to as unconscious denial or psychological denial. Only unconscious denial can adequately explain the illogical and counterfactual court decisions sometimes issued even by respected judges. Finally, this article urges changes in both the theory and practice of family law. It proposes two new modifications to custody statutes designed to counteract the types of reasoning and practices that fuel denial of credible abuse claims, in particular, parental alienation theory. It also urges scholars and law professors to support the integration of the realities of family violence into family law scholarship and practice. As trainers and mentors of new family law professionals and significant contributors to shaping both the law and judicial practice, family law scholars have power to help turn the tide of destructive family court outcomes.
NGC 253 hosts the nearest nuclear starburst. Previous observations show a region rich in molecular gas, with dense clouds associated with recent star formation. We used the Atacama Large ...Submillimeter/Millimeter Array (ALMA) to image the 350 GHz dust continuum and molecular line emission from this region at 2 pc resolution. Our observations reveal ∼14 bright, compact (∼2-3 pc FWHM) knots of dust emission. Most of these sources are likely to be forming super star clusters (SSCs) based on their inferred dynamical and gas masses, association with 36 GHz radio continuum emission, and coincidence with line emission tracing dense, excited gas. One source coincides with a known SSC, but the rest remain invisible in Hubble near-infrared (IR) imaging. Our observations imply that gas still constitutes a large fraction of the overall mass in these sources. Their high brightness temperature at 350 GHz also implies a large optical depth near the peak of the IR spectral energy distribution. As a result, these sources may have large IR photospheres, and the IR radiation force likely exceeds L/c. Still, their moderate observed velocity dispersions suggest that feedback from radiation, winds, and supernovae are not yet disrupting most sources. This mode of star formation appears to produce a large fraction of stars in the burst. We argue for a scenario in which this phase lasts ∼1 Myr, after which the clusters shed their natal cocoons but continue to produce ionizing photons. The strong feedback that drives the observed cold gas and X-ray outflows likely occurs after the clusters emerge from this early phase.
Environmental conditions that contribute to childhood lead exposure are spatially patterned. Socioeconomic and racial inequities in childhood lead exposure have been well documented, however ...childhood lead exposure in Milwaukee is understudied. As a segregated rustbelt metropolitan area with childhood lead exposure concerns, Milwaukee is uniquely positioned to evaluate the synergistic effects of racial and economic drivers of childhood lead exposure. Using surveillance data from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Division of Public Health and the US Census Bureau, this cross-sectional study determined the intersectional effect of poverty, home ownership, and racial/ethnic composition on childhood lead exposure in Milwaukee County neighborhoods using linear regression adjusting for average census tract housing age and number of children. The final analytical sample consisted of 48,393 individual childhood blood lead levels aggregated to 215 Milwaukee County census tracts. Census tracts with mean childhood blood lead levels greater than or equal to 5 mug/dL were predominantly low home ownership, high poverty, and majority non-White census tracts. The effects of low home ownership, high poverty, and majority non-White census tracts were synergistic, producing 1.78 (95% CI: 1.44, 2.11) mug/dL higher mean childhood blood lead level than high home ownership, low poverty, and majority White census tracts (referent). This research reveals that social determinants at the neighborhood level co-occur and interact to produce inequities in childhood lead exposure. Lead prevention efforts should align with equity-focused housing and economic policies that target primary prevention in neighborhoods disproportionately burdened by childhood lead exposure.
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